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Need help identifying a bee

Hello. First year beekeeper here. I have a hive of Italian bees (I think - that's what I was told) but I'm seeing a different bee mixed in with mine. While mine are more yellow stripped and blunt shaped this bee is darker and it's tale end is black. It's also shaped almost wasp-like with a very narrow abdomen. They haven't been aggressive and ignore me around the feeder. My honeybees will check them out but they don't bother each other. You can see both bees in the attached picture. Mine is the yellowish one at the top and the other bee is the dark one at the bottom. Can someone tell me what kind of bee that is?Bees.jpg

Re: Need help identifying a bee

As far as I can tell they're not in the hive. I meant to say that these different looking bees have shown up on the bee feeder. We're in the midst of summer and there's not much flowering going on so I just started feeding my bees sugar water until the fall flowering starts. So far they're all getting along ok even though they're competing for their food.

Re: Need help identifying a bee

I have had some just like that inside one of my hives. It was a hive that swarmed and I first saw two of these inside after the swarm cells were being torn down. I first thought that it was virgin queens. They are a tad smaller than my workers. Some of the workers pay them no attention and others are just aggressive enough to run them off, but not really attack them. If i can get a pic uploaded...image.jpgimage.jpg

Re: Need help identifying a bee

I haven't seen the trembling or crawling on the ground. I have seen the hairlessness, darker appearance, and some dead ones around the feeder. They're no more aggressive than the other bees but they just make me more cautious because they look like wasps.

Re: Need help identifying a bee

Do you have any idea what causes the virus or how it is contracted? I have some darker bees too and some crawling on the ground which I thought might be v. mite problems. I am currently treating with APIGUARD to see if that makes a difference.

Re: Need help identifying a bee

Originally Posted by Murdock

Do you have any idea what causes the virus or how it is contracted? I have some darker bees too and some crawling on the ground which I thought might be v. mite problems. I am currently treating with APIGUARD to see if that makes a difference.

Apiguard will do nothing for it, there are some write ups on the internet about it mostly from the UK. My hive had hundreds of shivering bees a day in front of it and walking around lost on the ground until the hive collapsed from it , some of the reads say re-queening may help. good luck with it

Re: Need help identifying a bee

Had a hive with the hairless bees and shaking about two months ago. Mite check met treatment threshold. treated for V. mite (Apiguard) and now they are doing good. V mite knocked them down and then the palsy/hairless problems surfaced. Looks like the Mite was the root cause for our hive. sometimes you have to treat for the cause not the effect.